Igor is Team Recoil’s captain and is playing Cyber-Stein today, while Simon is from Scotland and is surprised as anyone else to be here. With a quick card count and judge measure we got underway.

Simon won the roll and decided to start, and he did so with a set to each zone and passed. Igor had a pretty bad hand and set a monster, playing Level Limit – Area B before passing right back.

Another set monster from Simon let Igor mirror him again, and play continued slowly. “Slow pace game, love it,” said Igor.

Both players passed a few times and some turns later it was Level Limit and two set monsters to two and two of each. Hand counts were Igor’s seven to Simon’s six. Igor flipped Sangan, set another back row card and passed. He was drawing poorly and was trying to draw out the game to draw in to his Cyber-Stein combo! Speak of the devil, he top decked it, and played Giant Trunade.

No responses from Simon meant Igor could summon Cyber-Stein and pay 5000 life points to bring out Cyber End Dragon. He mumbled to himself and then attacked in to Sangan with it, playing Limiter Removal in the damage step. In the draw phase he activated Secret Barrel for game, and had a Poison of the Old Man, just in case! Igor Kharin takes the first game within eight minutes!

Both players launched in to their side-decks and got themselves ready for game two, both using up the full three minutes allowed for side decking and presenting their deck to the other. Igor had forced McGoldrick to side blind, shuffling his side-deck in to his main deck and stripping fifteen cards out!

“Would you like to start or shall I, eh?” asked Igor, and Simon chose to begin.

Both players drew their hands and again Simon set a card two each zone, adding a second to his back row too. Nobleman of Crossout took out Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and Igor set two cards to back and a monster before passing. Simon added a third to his back row and both players passed for a turn.

Simon flipped Ceasefire revealing Spirit Reaper and dealt 500 damage to Igor, before using Mystical Space Typhoon on Gravity Bind, and passing back. Igor was stretching, as the slow pace of the game obviously didn’t suit him.

A few turns and a Swords of Revealing Light later, Igor set his hand and flipped Morphing Jar! He drew his hand and proclaimed “Oh yeah,” as he filled up the rest of his spell and trap zone and passed. Simon activated Graceful Charity and chose to discard Magician of Faith and Spirit Reaper. Igor had put him on a Chaos Sorcerer, but first of all he used Nobleman of Crossout which prompted Igor to respond with Ceasefire, dealing 2000 damage and flipped up his Mystic Tomato as well as Simon’s Spirit Reaper.

Simon summoned Magician of Faith and used it to magically change in to a Thousand-Eyes Restrict, which absorbed Mystic Tomato.

“My turn?”

“Not yet.”

Two Wave-Motion Cannons later, Simon passed and Igor looked at his hand in disgust. He set Magician of Faith and passed. Simon brought out Jinzo, tributing Spirit Reaper, and ended. Swords of Revealing Light was destroyed.

“Please don’t be Cyber Jar!” said Simon, pointing at the face-down Magician of Faith.

“It’s kind of banned,” Igor replied.

Thousand-Eyes Restrict tore through Morphing Jar dealing 700 to Igor, and the life totals were Igor’s 6800 to 6000 of Simon’s. The Wave-Motion Cannons were at three turns and Simon launched one to leave him at 3800.

Igor needed this top deck to win the game!

He didn’t get it, though, and in the next turn when Simon thought he had it, Igor played Poison of the Old Man, giving himself 1200 life points, and making Simon wait another turn!

“I’m not going to win this now, bro, I’m just playing it out because it’s funny,” he said.

What wasn’t funny was the topdecked Giant Trunade! It returned everything to hands and Igor still could do nothing!

At the start of Simon’s turn there was two set back row cards and two set monsters as well as a face-up Spirit Reaper on Igor’s field to Simon’s set monster, Thousand eyes and Jinzo. The Thousand Eyes and Jinzo were both stalling the game big time! Simon tributed his face-down monster for Mobius wiping out Igor’s back row and forcing him to gain 1200 with Poison of the Old Man, and absorbed Spirit Reaper with Thousand Eyes. The next turn however Tsukuyomi began the cycle and the field was completely locked up save for the replayed Wave-Motion Cannon which kept gaining standby phases!

On the other table the coinciding semifinal had just finished, and so Igor began to show signs of stress. Tsukuyomi continued to cycle Thousand Eyes and although having both Cyber-Stein and Limiter Removal in his hand he could do nothing!

On Simon’s next turn, Wave-Motion Cannon hit three counters, and Igor then even topped another Giant Trunade to add insult to injury! The life counts were Igor’s 6200 to Simon’s 6000 and this was becoming a “dead end game,” said Igor.

Simon sent Wave-Motion Cannon for 5000 damage and Igor was pained! Heavy Storm cleared the way and finally Igor conceded because he knew about the Tsukuyomi trick to flip Thousand-Eyes Restrict down and attack with everything.

At 1-1, Igor was to start us off for game three!

Igor once again did the same side deck trick, and I could see that he decided to keep the Cyber-Stein in his main deck. This could make for an interesting game three.

Igor set a card to each zone and passed over to Simon, who thought carefully, as usual, and played Heavy Storm clearing out Ceasefire. Igor decided to chain it and it revealed Nimble Momonga for 500.

Snatch Steal and Mobius took Igor for 2400, and Simon set a card and activated Wave-Motion Cannon before saying go.

Igor set two back row and a monster; so Simon decided to get rid of Wave-Motion to leave Igor on 4600. He set a monster and Igor was up, so his Nobleman of Crossout cleaned out Magician of Faith, as well as all remaining copies in both decks. He set another monster and looked extremely bored as he sighed.

Simon passed and Igor drew Graceful Charity but opted not to use it until the turn afterwards, where he discarded Scapegoat and Exiled Force. He set a spell or trap before passing, and now had three with two set monsters to Simon’s two back row and, after his turn, Mobius and two set monsters. This was going slowly once again!

Again the game continued in a “draw, go” manner, and the crowd was becoming restless as well as Igor, who was drawing lots of stall and power-up cards, but nothing else solid! Simon was first to blink as he summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior and removed its counter to “break” a chained Secret Barrel, claiming 2000 of Simon’s life points. Breaker attacked in to Mystic Tomato which gave Igor a Sangan, while Mobius ran in to Magic Cylinder. Simon had a think for a minute, and then used Book of Moon to avoid the damage.

Simon flipped Mystical Space Typhoon on Poison of the Old Man, giving Igor 1200 life points and bringing him within Cyber-Stein range, however, although he was holding all other parts of the combo, Igor couldn’t find his Cyber-Stein!

Simon flipped Mobius and also Spirit Reaper, then tributed his Sangan for Cyber Dragon, fetching him Tsukuyomi to the hand. Breaker hit Sangan which got Igor a Cyber-Stein; Mobius hit . . . straight in to Mirror Force! Things were looking up for Igor and he was grinning!

Main Phase two brought Chaos Sorcerer out for Simon, but it was all over! With Heavy Storm, Cyber-Stein, Megamorph and Limiter Removal took the game for Igor Kharin!

He was moving on to the final with a 2-1 victory over Simon McGoldrick!